How Apple is dodging billions in taxes

Shifting profits to countries with low rates

(NEWS.com.au) — APPLE Inc paid an income tax rate of only 1.9 per cent on its earnings outside the US in its latest fiscal year, a regulatory filing by the company shows.

The world’s most valuable company paid $US713 million ($A688.52 million) in tax on foreign earnings of $36.8 billion in the fiscal year ended September 29, according to the financial statement filed on October 31.

Its foreign earnings were up 53 per cent from fiscal 2011, when Apple earned $24 billion outside the US and paid income tax of 2.5 per cent on it.

The tech giant’s foreign tax rate compares with the general US corporate tax rate of 35 per cent.